Friday, May 24, 2013

Drudge has a link up to this Daily Mail article, and a bunch of others. A flight from Heathrow to Oslo was interrupted because the left engine nacelle covers popped open on takeoff. The pilot decided to return, and while on approach, the right hand engine caught fire.

I'm not an engineer, but I have spent a significant part of my life in and around airliners and transports. Two engines going south at the same time are extremely rare. The officials are calling it bird strike. Maybe, but after the beheading murder, I'm wondering if something else might be in play.

Update - Breitbart has a post by Joel B. Pollak wondering if the deliberate small plane crash into the Austin, Tx. IRS offices wasn't the trigger for the "let's get the Tea Party" attacks. The crash happened on Feb 18, 2010. Speculative, yes, but Obama's meeting with the IRS union boss happened less than two weeks later, and the attacks began the next day.

Pundette has a link to this story at American Spectator, about a meeting between the head of the IRS' employee's union and Obama the day before the IRS started messing with "... the Tea Party and other conservative groups..." So it thus appears that the IRS' marching orders, while coming from the very, very tippy-top, were actually communicated from the "side", instead of through the legal chain-of-command.

The story at the links is loading very slowly, if at all. I suspect that's because it is linked on both Drudge and Instapundit. (5-20-2013)

Tuesday, May 14, 2013

I was the house husband during the spring and summer of the televised Watergate hearings, so I got to watch them live on TV. Sam Ervin was my favorite and my hero. "English is my mother tongue..." is my favorite quote of his. What is starting to foment/ferment around the Obama administration, what with Benghazi, the IRS' harassments of patriots and Jews, the DOJ's AP phone grab and gun walking, the DOE's green money dump, HHS' "fundraising", and God-knows-what-else, is starting to look, feel and sound like the run up that old summer-time hearing.

I knew Nixon was doomed the day my mom, a staunch supporter, said to me "He must have known..." Well, mom is gone, so I don't have that barometer. Had she been here in 2008 and 2012, I doubt she would have voted for Obama, and I bet she would have said "He must have known..."as soon as she heard the YouTube BS. OTOH, the stirring of the old media could mean the almost the same thing, "Did he know? And if so, when? Was it at his order?"

CNN's Jake Tapper is making a big to-do about a new memo from 9/14, that he says was mis-quoted to say the State's interest in the Benghazi talking point's were to be addressed in a weekend meeting. He's busy mis-directing about the "mis-quotes", leaving the impression that the memo discredits the reporting on the issue. It doesn't:

So whoever leaked the inaccurate information earlier this month did so
in a way that made it appear that the White House – specifically Rhodes –
was more interested in the State Department’s concerns, and more
focused on the talking points, that the email actually stated.

I couldn't resist commenting:

"...significance seems to be..."? Well, is it or isn't it?

This part:

"Insofar as we have firmed up assessments that don't
compromise intel or the investigation, we need to have the capability to
correct the record, as there are significant policy and messaging
ramifications that would flow from a hardened mis-impression.

We can take this up tomorrow morning at deputies."

doesn't persuade me that the talking points weren't changed.
The real question about that is still "Who had them changed?" State?
CIA? Oval Office?

I refer you to the Oracle of Bacon for understanding. The default will tell you how many actors separate Kevin Bacon from any given actor. For example, if you put in "Elvis Presley" you will find that they both worked with John Wheeler of different movies (a Bocon Number of 2). If you want to know, click the "How It Works" tab on the left. Mark Ruffalo worked with him on the same movie, for a Bacon number of 1.